Four Indicted In Wild Horse Corral Arson

By AP&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Thu 3:53 PM, Apr 06, 2006

Four people were indicted on federal arson charges Thursday in the 2001 firebombing of a federal corral near Susanville, Calif., that housed wild horses and burros rounded up from public rangeland. Three of the four suspects in the firebombing at the Bureau ofLand Management facility about 80 miles northwest of Reno alreadyhave been indicted on federal charges mostly in Oregon inconnection with a string of cases of alleged eco-terrorism acrossseveral Western states. One of them, Canadian Darren Thurston, 36, remains in custody inOregon. Two others previously indicted, Rebecca Rubin, 32, andJoseph Dibee, 38, are listed as fugitives, as is the fourth suspectnamed for the first time in Thursday's indictment, Justin Solondz,26. U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott and FBI Special Agent DrewParenti announced the new three-count indictment on Thursday inSacramento charging the four with conspiracy to commit arson, arsonof a government building and use of a destructive device during andin relation to a crime of violence. They said the charges were the product of an extensiveinvestigation by the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force. "Those who would commit acts of terror, such as arson, in thename of the Earth Liberation Front, and the Animal Liberation Frontshould be on notice: federal law enforcement will do everything inits capacity to track you down and hold you accountable for yourdangerous behavior," Scott said in a statement issued by hisoffice in Sacramento. "Today's indictments of these four eco-terrorists bring to 11the total number of ELF or ELF-ALF related defendants charged inthree separate cases brought by this office over the past year." Dibee is among three suspects earlier charged with torching theCavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore., in July 1997.Rubin, also a fugitive, is among three suspects charged in an arsonfire at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore., in December 1998. Four firebombs had been rigged to ignite at the BLM's Litchfieldcorral along U.S. Highway 395 about 20 miles northeast ofSusanville, Calif., but only one went off, destroying thehay-filled barn on Oct. 16, 2001. A military bomb squad disarmedthe others. No one was injured. About two weeks after the firebombing, a spokesman for theAnimal Liberation Front said that another group, the EarthLiberation Front, appeared to be taking credit for the attack as aform of protest against the federal roundup of wild horses. Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham, who is prosecuting thecase, said Thursday that in addition to the bomb that went off asecond device was located in the hay barn adjacent to the one thatburned. A third device was located on the front porch of the BLM office,and a fourth was under the car of a BLM horse wrangler. "Although this incident occurred more than 4 years ago, the FBIand its JTTF partners continued to investigate these acts ofextremism, and are pleased charges have been filed against thoseresponsible," Parenti said Thursday. If convicted, the penalties under federal law for conspiracy tocommit arson and arson are 20 years maximum, a mandatory minimum offive years in prison, and a three-year term of supervised release. The penalty for use of a destructive device during a crime ofviolence is 30 years to be served consecutively to the underlyingcrime, and a five-year term of supervised release.

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